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Claims, TD, and Such[ split from Gen Vance announces retirement]

Weinie

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FJAG said:
Why bother? They control the budget anyway so cost cutting and a probable force reduction is already written on the wall. Willingness isn't the issue.

What they really need is to find someone who can take those cost reductions and make the hard decisions to reshape the force so that it is still credible and capable. (getting rid of 10,000 full-timers in Ottawa [including seventy-five or more GOFOs/senior civil servants and the hierarchy of Cols, LCols, Majs etc that support them] would be a good start first step - I'll start the bidding with 50 legal officers and two military judges plus staff as well as all of DNDCFLA  ;D)

Good luck finding someone within the organization with that skill set.

:stirpot:

FJAG,

If you can find a way to stop the myriad (and mostly useless) statutory reporting requirements that have been enacted over the last 25 years, then you will go a long way to ridding Ottawa of thousands of uniforms, and endless administration. Finance, Supply, Procurement, HR, Diversity, Hateful Conduct, Education, Care of Ill and Injured, Audits, OPQ's, ATI's, etc etc . These are all mandated programs, so they are either dealt with in Ottawa, with the requisite pers burdens that they entail, or pushed down to the Op and tactical level for resolution, which takes people away from their jobs. Is there room to trim, undoubtedly, but I witnessed first hand the "lean HQ" initiative that manifested itself in the Army in the early 90's. HQ's were cut significantly, and the still extant reporting requirement was pushed to Bdes and units, with the result that they were swamped with bureaucratic admin shyte. Somebody has to do it.
 
Weinie said:
FJAG,

If you can find a way to stop the myriad (and mostly useless) statutory reporting requirements that have been enacted over the last 25 years, then you will go a long way to ridding Ottawa of thousands of uniforms, and endless administration. Finance, Supply, Procurement, HR, Diversity, Hateful Conduct, Education, Care of Ill and Injured, Audits, OPQ's, ATI's, etc etc . These are all mandated programs, so they are either dealt with in Ottawa, with the requisite pers burdens that they entail, or pushed down to the Op and tactical level for resolution, which takes people away from their jobs. Is there room to trim, undoubtedly, but I witnessed first hand the "lean HQ" initiative that manifested itself in the Army in the early 90's. HQ's were cut significantly, and the still extant reporting requirement was pushed to Bdes and units, with the result that they were swamped with bureaucratic admin shyte. Somebody has to do it.

There's no question that you are right about that. Many of these need paring down or elimination as well and any organization worth it's salt (and working for a profit) finds ways to do that. Government agencies, since they can offload costs on the public, tend just to pile one questionable bureaucratic layer on top of another. Every tiny problem screams for another piece of legislation or regulation to straighten things out.

On top of that though, DND has so many self imposed hurdles that have turned Ottawa into one massive self-licking ice cream cone; agencies and directorates that create work simply for themselves and others without any real benefit to the system. Leslie's Report on Transformation found 7,000 military and public service jobs that "serve little purpose" and he was prevented from looking in detail at NDHQ. Most of those were middle management within Ottawa. Many headquarter agencies can be streamlined by reducing reporting layers and automating processes.

The problem is that the military and civil service are traditionally conservative and highly resistant to change. If one was kind, one would say that they are so busy doing their day-to-day job that they don't have time to reform themselves, especially on the scale that is needed. But then I've never been particularly kind when it comes to bureaucrats: in my humble opinion they are too protective of their corporate rice-bowls. Change has to come mandated from outside. Honestly, if NDHQ/CFHQ was part of a civilian corporate structure the board would have fired the CEO/CFO/COO and half of their staff long ago. Can you imagine a business for warfighting that gives up it's necessary operational capabilities while increasing it's headquarters by 4,803 people (46%) and in Ottawa in particular by 3,368 people (61%) and its executives by 19% (including a 25% increase in civilian executives) and still argue with a straight face that the government is giving them enough money like DND/CF did during 2004 to 2011.

And have you ever read our departmental performance reports? (Don't answer. I know you have) On a PER they would be summarized as "This department sets low standards for itself and continuously fails to meet them." But when you go through the 158 pages of tables and pie charts and verbiage (that's the 2018 one I'm haven't seen one for 2019) you are overwhelmed by the sheer banality of it all. There must be whole directorates that are responsible for churning out this and numerous similar pieces of tripe. (Fire them right after the fifty plus lawyers and maybe a few dozen communication branch wallahs.)

But I digress.  :Tin-Foil-Hat:

:cheers:
 
When I worked at CJOC some years ago, we used to have a Comd Coffee once a week and I recall one time shortly after word came down about how everyone needed to save money and TD's would need the approval of the COS, a BGen and international TD needed the CJOC Comd or DComd's approval.  It lasted about a month until they started complaining they didn't have the time to review these things and everything went back to normal.  It's amazing how much money is wasted on TD's when a video conferences would often accomplish the same thing.  I used to see senior officers come up and say they can't believe how much money the CAF just wasted for sending 3 people to Europe for a week long useless conference.  Other times I've heard people say one person instead of a team could have been sent.  We could save a lot just on limiting TD.  As far as numbers in Ottawa, they are not going to cut the amount of people they have posted to the NCR.  That was already recommended by LGen (Ret) Leslie and look what happened.  I believe the numbers went up instead of down.

 
stellarpanther said:
When I worked at CJOC some years ago, we used to have a Comd Coffee once a week and I recall one time shortly after word came down about how everyone needed to save money and TD's would need the approval of the COS, a BGen and international TD needed the CJOC Comd or DComd's approval.  It lasted about a month until they started complaining they didn't have the time to review these things and everything went back to normal.  It's amazing how much money is wasted on TD's when a video conferences would often accomplish the same thing.  I used to see senior officers come up and say they can't believe how much money the CAF just wasted for sending 3 people to Europe for a week long useless conference.  Other times I've heard people say one person instead of a team could have been sent.  We could save a lot just on limiting TD.  As far as numbers in Ottawa, they are not going to cut the amount of people they have posted to the NCR.  That was already recommended by LGen (Ret) Leslie and look what happened.  I believe the numbers went up instead of down.

My experience with meetings is that the “real” business happens during coffee breaks chatting with people.  This is how I normally get files moving forward.  There is a real intangible from being on-site, that you don’t get sitting in front of a screen.  It also allows you to read your audience a lot better.
 
SupersonicMax said:
My experience with meetings is that the “real” business happens during coffee breaks chatting with people.  This is how I normally get files moving forward.  There is a real intangible from being on-site, that you don’t get sitting in front of a screen.  It also allows you to read your audience a lot better.
You can get away with some remote meetings... but they work best when the attendees already know each other through face to face.

And the CAF role is not only to succeed today; there is also a need to develop and get experience for more junior personnel.  It's a balance.

Is there some useless TD?  Yes.  Is there useful and important TD that does not happen because of restrictions?  Also yes.
 
dapaterson said:
You can get away with some remote meetings... but they work best when the attendees already know each other through face to face.

And the CAF role is not only to succeed today; there is also a need to develop and get experience for more junior personnel.  It's a balance.

Is there some useless TD?  Yes.  Is there useful and important TD that does not happen because of restrictions?  Also yes.

It's not just whether the TD is justified, but how it's not being properly controlled (comptrolled?). My experience working for the naval reserve was FAR different from my experience working for the RegF.

While working for the reserves, you got nothing more than what was reasonable unless you could substantiate it. Heck, the commander of NAVRES stayed in one of the crappiest hotels in our town and was driven around in our ugly as 8 pax van because it was available. However, in the RegF:

You have people being approved to stay in hotels when there are accommodations available on base.
You have people being approved to stay in a hotel the night before their flight out from a tasking even though their bunks on base/ship are still available .
You have people being approved for rental cars when they are attending an event on base and are staying at accommodations on base.
You have people being approved for flights much greater than the cheaper option because who knows why.
Etc.

When I ask friends in the RCAF and CANSOF how they get away with it, their response is almost universally something like "our clerks just do whatever we ask them to".
 
Lumber said:
When I ask friends in the RCAF and CANSOF how they get away with it, their response is almost universally something like "our clerks just do whatever we ask them to".

Believe me not all of us do that.  I've pissed off several Sr Officers and Sr. NCO's in the past by telling them they weren't entitled to something.  Mind you they don't have to stay at the crappiest hotel in town either though.  They are allowed to stay at whatever hotel they want to up to the max rate for that city.  If the hotel is more they can still stay there but will only get the max city rate.  The CFTDTI's and NJC policies supersedes the CO's wishes.  Unfortunately I once had a CO that was telling mbr's to say at a motel 6 in one city because it was cheaper.  The mbr's grieved it and that CO's policy very quickly came to an end and the mbr's received their money that was owed.
 
Lumber said:
It's not just whether the TD is justified, but how it's not being properly controlled (comptrolled?). My experience working for the naval reserve was FAR different from my experience working for the RegF.

While working for the reserves, you got nothing more than what was reasonable unless you could substantiate it. Heck, the commander of NAVRES stayed in one of the crappiest hotels in our town and was driven around in our ugly as 8 pax van because it was available. However, in the RegF:

You have people being approved to stay in hotels when there are accommodations available on base.
You have people being approved to stay in a hotel the night before their flight out from a tasking even though their bunks on base/ship are still available .
You have people being approved for rental cars when they are attending an event on base and are staying at accommodations on base.
You have people being approved for flights much greater than the cheaper option because who knows why.
Etc.


When I ask friends in the RCAF and CANSOF how they get away with it, their response is almost universally something like "our clerks just do whatever we ask them to".

I witnessed this as well and the downright bullying of the clerical folks to make it happen.  There is sense of entitlement that is permeating the CAF and when you are the Cpl/LS Log type trying to do the right thing with a higher rank bearing down on you and your own CoC won’t support you it gets difficult if not impossible.  Not mention that our audits are toothless wastes of time and resources.  There really is no repercussion for the misuse and abuse of our logistical systems, and it has made our jobs down right impossible to accomplish.

Although my personality makes it easier for me to fight back and up hold regulations.  Sometime over a beer I will tell the story about the Clearance Diver CPO2 who demanded that I procure the divers at a unit with shower kits, exercise attire and  running shoes because their trade is special and demands a high level of fitness. 

Or when I had to stand in front of CO and explain why it’s not just wrong but a bad idea to let one of his LT(N)s bring a C8 with bolt and Mag home to practice their drills in preparation for SOF selection.  Yup the LT(N) fought me all the way to the CO about that one.
 
I ask my folks to absolutely use quarters if they are available/suitable but there are circumstances when it is not practical.  We tend to work on DVPNI quite a bit on the road and not having an internet connection is a show stopper.  Not so much an issue now that most bases have adopted Wifi but we had a fair amount of people stay in hotels for this specifically.

The other common occurrence is to live in on-base accommodation but eat meals on the economy.  Bases don’t allow to have a “pay as go you” card (ie: only be charged the meals you actually eat) and our schedule often does not allow for us to eat at the mess hall (flying or working far from base) so we eat on the economy.
 
Lumber said:
While working for the reserves, you got nothing more than what was reasonable unless you could substantiate it. Heck, the commander of NAVRES stayed in one of the crappiest hotels in our town and was driven around in our ugly as 8 pax van because it was available. However, in the RegF:

You have people being approved to stay in hotels when there are accommodations available on base.
You have people being approved to stay in a hotel the night before their flight out from a tasking even though their bunks on base/ship are still available .
You have people being approved for rental cars when they are attending an event on base and are staying at accommodations on base.
You have people being approved for flights much greater than the cheaper option because who knows why.
Etc.

While nice soundbites, all of those statements require a lot of context before you can bust out the pitchforks and burn the witches of fiscal mismanagement.

For Point 3, I sincerely hope you have to go on course on a massive base (Gagetown, Borden) in the middle of winter where your accomodations are on the other side of the base from the Canex and/or mess hall. Enjoy your long cold walks trapped for weeks on a base using all your TD money on taxis just so you don't go insane. Sounds like one of those screw the troops before they screw you situations.

There's nothing in the CFTDIs that I found that says a member is not allowed to have a rental vehicle while on TD. If it's business planned for and the approving authority says the justification is good to go then why are we not allowing our troops to have a little bit of comfort when sent away from home?

:highjack:
 
PuckChaser said:
While nice soundbites, all of those statements require a lot of context before you can bust out the pitchforks and burn the witches of fiscal mismanagement.

For Point 3, I sincerely hope you have to go on course on a massive base (Gagetown, Borden) in the middle of winter where your accomodations are on the other side of the base from the Canex and/or mess hall. Enjoy your long cold walks trapped for weeks on a base using all your TD money on taxis just so you don't go insane. Sounds like one of those screw the troops before they screw you situations.

There's nothing in the CFTDIs that I found that says a member is not allowed to have a rental vehicle while on TD. If it's business planned for and the approving authority says the justification is good to go then why are we not allowing our troops to have a little bit of comfort when sent away from home?

:highjack:

All Naval Officers should have to spend 10 weeks of their life living in Tent City in Gagetown to get an appreciation of how shitty the troops have it sometimes.

There would be a heck of a lot less FTT.
 
Humphrey Bogart said:
All Naval Officers should have to spend 10 weeks of their life living in Tent City in Gagetown to get an appreciation of how shitty the troops have it sometimes.

There would be a heck of a lot less FTT.

Nope, two nights in Op Impacts Camp Canada re-enforced to me that the Navy has bar none the best accommodations in the Forces and I should never ever bitch about them! (2nd to the RCAF 7 Star accommodations of course!  ;D)
 
The way I was taught and considered when approving claims was whether it was allowed in the regulations.  If the CFTDTI/NJC doesn't specifically prevent it then it's up to whoever is approving the TD to allow it.  There are some mbr's who just do something on their own and then expect the FSA's to go along with it.  It should be approved in advance a simple email to attach is all that is required or include it our your initial request and get it signed off then.
I've seen numerous people get approved for a rental car while on TD in Borden or Halifax, I've never had that luck but it's not because it wasn't allowed, just that my unit wouldn't agree to it.  As for flights, in addition to looking at the cost of the flight, you should look at other factors as well.  Do you really want to make the mbr sit around the airport waiting 6 hours for a connection or get home at 3:00am just so your unit can save $150?  I've never done that to someone but unfortunately some people do operate that way and penny pinch.  I've been spoken to on a few occasions by my CoC for not being enough of a bean counter but I always try to put the mbr first while staying within the regulations.
 
Lumber said:
It's not just whether the TD is justified, but how it's not being properly controlled (comptrolled?).

You have people being approved for rental cars when they are attending an event on base and are staying at accommodations on base.

Sometimes staying on base using R & Q can also entail a rental;  staying at the Dakota Inn and having a conference at Glass Palace in January at YWG is a good example (did that last Jan).
 
Some wild thread drift here. Time for a split perhaps into a new or existing claims/CFTDTIs thread?
 
stellarpanther said:
The way I was taught and considered when approving claims was whether it was allowed in the regulations.

When you saying you are approving a claim, do you mean exercising Sect 34 authorities?  Or Sect 33?
 
Lumber said:
It's not just whether the TD is justified, but how it's not being properly controlled (comptrolled?). My experience working for the naval reserve was FAR different from my experience working for the RegF.

While working for the reserves, you got nothing more than what was reasonable unless you could substantiate it. Heck, the commander of NAVRES stayed in one of the crappiest hotels in our town and was driven around in our ugly as 8 pax van because it was available. However, in the RegF:

You have people being approved to stay in hotels when there are accommodations available on base.
You have people being approved to stay in a hotel the night before their flight out from a tasking even though their bunks on base/ship are still available .
You have people being approved for rental cars when they are attending an event on base and are staying at accommodations on base.
You have people being approved for flights much greater than the cheaper option because who knows why.
Etc.

When I ask friends in the RCAF and CANSOF how they get away with it, their response is almost universally something like "our clerks just do whatever we ask them to".

It's first important to point out that the decision-making surrounding whether someone gets a hotel vice shacks, or gets a rental car, etc. rests with the approving authority, which in almost all cases of overnight travel is a CO or higher.

Most of what you have listed I have not noticed much poor decision-making around in the Army. I would say there's been a few times where we've worked with the RCN and RCAF, such as Dom Ops, and the disparity was quite a point of contention. In the Army we're probably more often guilty of screwing people over to save $5 and all the while wasting a full day of work for that person. This is usually out of thinking we aren't allowed to use discretion, a great example being the many many many many times we would be smarter to request a member use their POMV but we don't even recognize that option exists.

It's not up to RMS clerks, or now FSAs, to determine whether or not you get a rental vehicle. There's a reason an Individual Travel Authorization outlines how you will travel, with a cost estimate, and that the member acknowledges it, before the approving authority approves it and the amount is Sect 32'd. If it shows you'll be getting a rental car, or shows you'll be staying in commercial accommodations, you're good to go. If it doesn't, you aren't. It's not the finance staff's decision.

Sadly, we are obviously organizationally incompetent for this conversation to be even occurring.

Lumber said:
It's not just whether the TD is justified, but how it's not being properly controlled (comptrolled?).

The Comptroller world, starting with ADM(Fin), can only make the rules. Management operates within them. If management proves unable to handle the discretion they are given, then yes, it becomes an assurance* issue. It's one of those things where if you** need more explicit direction it can be provided, but you might not like it and would be a lot better to reign it in yourself.

*Assurance - The proper term for what we're talking about is assurance, which encompasses a whole range of things including audit, internal control, training, policy, etc. This is not a term I've ever heard used in the CAF but I've become more and more a stickler on nomenclature as it seems directly tied to results.

**You - And by "you" I mean whoever the approving authority is... like I said, in most cases we are talking about a CO or higher, someone who ought to be able to entrusted to keep stewardship in mind. In fairness, in our current state they are often receiving poor advice, but then they also ignore some pretty good advice thinking they know better. Hard for me to gauge anything outside my own organization in this regard, I just don't have the right vantage point, so I won't comment on how well or not well we are doing on this front.
 
Halifax Tar said:
I witnessed this as well and the downright bullying of the clerical folks to make it happen.  There is sense of entitlement that is permeating the CAF and when you are the Cpl/LS Log type trying to do the right thing with a higher rank bearing down on you and your own CoC won’t support you it gets difficult if not impossible.

There's a reason of course, in other organizations, the accountants work for the financial controller and not operations manager. But the CAF seems to think it's found a better way...

Halifax Tar said:
Not mention that our audits are toothless wastes of time and resources.  There really is no repercussion for the misuse and abuse of our logistical systems, and it has made our jobs down right impossible to accomplish.

The only "audits" done in the department are by ADM(Review Services), or the AG Canada if they should want. In any case, our internal assurance functions which are often called "audits" are not actually audits. Some of our internal assurance functions, such as post-payment verifications, were confirmed by ADM(RS) to be "unreliable." They re-performed PPV results and had different results 60% of the time. In other words, we weren't even competent enough to inspect ourselves for issues. Governance of financial management was noted as needing "significant improvement" by ADM(RS) who, in my opinion, have been doing their damn best to help  but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

I recently read a JCSP thesis on military finance officers which was essentially warning back in 2014 that if we don't sort it out, military comptrollership is going to be replaced by civilians, and once again, we might not like it... but we'll have done it to ourselves.

Right now the Deputy CFO / CAF Comptroller, MGen Goodyear, doesn't have any Colonels with the TB-required accounting designation to replace him, and the Deputy Canadian Army Comptroller is going to be "temporarily" filled by an FI-04 next year... let's see how quick a temporary fix becomes a permanent one....
 
ballz said:
It's first important to point out that the decision-making surrounding whether someone gets a hotel vice shacks, or gets a rental car, etc. rests with the approving authority, which in almost all cases of overnight travel is a CO or higher.

Yup

It's not up to RMS clerks, or now FSAs, to determine whether or not you get a rental vehicle.

Exactly

There's a reason an Individual Travel Authorization outlines how you will travel, with a cost estimate, and that the member acknowledges it, before the approving authority approves it and the amount is Sect 32'd. If it shows you'll be getting a rental car, or shows you'll be staying in commercial accommodations, you're good to go. If it doesn't, you aren't.

Absolutely

It's not the finance staff's decision.

Despite what they may think.  I have been around this buoy a few times.....but seldom a second time with the same clerk.
 
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